Faculty/Staff Profile

Karen Harris Brown, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Biography

Karen Harris Brown, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is an associate professor of Communication Sciences Disorders at the University of West Georgia. For three and a half academic years Dr. Brown served as the program director. Primarily, Dr. Brown teaches courses focused on motor speech disorders, swallowing disorders, and issues related to cultural and linguistic diversity. She has 22 years of experience as a speech-language pathologist and has worked with individuals across the lifespan in a variety of school-based and medical settings. She maintains a speech-language pathology license by the Georgia Board of Examiners, service certification by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, and Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Dr. Brown's current research interests include issues related to social justice and professional efficacy of school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to work with children and adolescents diagnosed with dysphagia (swallowing disorders). Service at the national level includes a (1) completed a two-year term as a steering committee member for ASHA Special Interest Group, Division 14, Communication Sciences and Disorders in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations; (2) 2012 Race to the Top District (RTT-D) grant reviewer for the U. S. Department of Education; and (3) 2014-2018 Site Visitor for the Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA) for Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology of ASHA.

Professional Interests

Providing technical assistance to school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and teachers who work with P-12 students who are English language learners, efficacy of school-based SLPs to provide dysphagia management services, and helping to create social justice.